Earlier
this year I wrote an article
for CLO all about my move from Los Angeles to Saint Louis in order to attend
Lindenwood University and join their newly-established chess program. Towards
the end of the piece I mentioned that I was moving back home to Los Angeles as
a "free agent", hoping that the right person would read those words and choose
to "draft" me. I felt optimistic, after all, being in my early twenties and
having already earned five capital letters next to my name (MBA FM Kostya!).

Indeed, not
long after I graduated, Ankit Gupta sent me a message asking if I wouldn't be
interested in taking on a larger role at his organization, Metropolitan
Chess (I have
already been writing and editing instructional courses for the MetroChess
Mobile App for some time). Ankit offered me the position of Director of
Marketing, which I accepted without much hesitation and started just last
month. Now my new responsibilities include overseeing and promoting almost
every business aspect of the company - tournaments, camps, the mobile app, and
even the new publishing branch of MetroChess.

For those
not familiar with MetroChess, I'd like to provide a brief history: the club
started in 2009, with a series of IM-norm and GM-norm round robin tournaments
designed to give more high-level opportunities to chess players in Southern
California. In 2011 the 1st Metropolitan International was held, a super-swiss that was
led and won by GM Michael Adams.

In 2012, the 2nd Metropolitan International took place, this time won by IM
Dionisio Aldama (in a thrilling playoff over GM Timur Gareev). Several players
earned norms in MetroChess events, including IM Victor Shen and IM Philip Wang,
as well as young stars such as GM-elect Kayden Troff and IM Sam Sevian (Kayden earned
two IM norms while Sam earned all three through MetroChess round-robins)

Anand (being presented with a resolution from the city of Glendale) & Ankit Gupta -- Kele Perkins

The
Metropolitan Chess Camps have also been quite noteworthy -- the first one,
headlined by GM Michael Adams, took place in August 2011, while the 2012 and
2013 editions featured none other than ex-World Champion (and now World Championship challenger!) Viswanathan Anand.

With such a
successful brand already established within the chess community, I am really
thrilled to take on the role of promoting and expanding MetroChess. Not only
can I now work professionally within the chess world, I can also put some of my
formal education to use as well. After accepting the job offer I met with Ankit
and we developed a business plan for 2014, as well as a long-term growth plan
for several years to come. The first priority was to start running open
tournaments in Southern California once again - there were only a few held in
the area in 2013, but for the future we hope to re-establish SoCal as a mecca
for mid-size open chess tournaments. Upcoming tournaments include two classics
with familiar names: the Western Pacific Open and the Pacific Southwest Open. There are several more tournaments
in planning for later in 2014 as well as throughout 2015 and beyond.

The "Modernized"
opening series aims to explore the modern approach to studying openings, and
future titles to be released this year include Modernized: The Open Sicilian
(co-authored by myself and IM Zhanibek Amanov), as well as Modernized: The
Petroff Defense by GM Ronen Har-Zvi. Several other book titles are
currently in the process of being commissioned, and MetroChess would like to
establish itself as the premier publishing company based in the United States.

I believe
the future of Metropolitan Chess is quite bright, and will significantly
contribute to the growing popularity of chess in the United States for many
years to come.